Avatar: The Last Airbender (serial)

Season 1 & 2

Aang is an air bender and the selected next avatar. The avatar is a keeper of balance, able to master bending of the four elements (air, earth, water, fire) and holds the mission of keeping the nations in harmony. Unfortuantely for him, the Fire Nation attacked the Air, annihilated all and by chance, Aang was thrown into a 100 year hibernation in the north. When he awakes, he befriends two from the Southern Water Tribe, and learns of the trauma of the past 100 years without an avatar. This series is the progression of Aang's development into an avatar. Learning to bend, learning to care, learning to control. Effectively, a a morality tale unfolding in the fantasy world. I bought in to the story telling and the world building, I overlooked the "fantasy hallmark" feeling, embraced the YA targeted dialogue and preaching. I only wish it had been complete before I started. Now I need to wait a year for the final season to drop. Hope I don't forget...

3 stars (out of 5)

IF

A 12 year old (going on 20) is our heroine, as she is dealing with her dad (John Krasinski) going for heart surgery. Especially traumatic since she lost her mom to cancer a few years ago. Staying with her grandmother during the surgery, she is taken back to her childhood as she can see IFs (Imaginary Friends) and gets pulled into a operation with the guy upstairs (Ryan Reynolds) to match IFs with their "kids" who have forgotten them and can no longer see them. In the process, she is reintroduced to her own "12-year-old-ness" and how important it is to be imaginative and have fun. A pretty well executed, if on-the-nose, message movie for teens and adults alike. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Old Guard 2

What a massive disappointment. While the first film was excellent, this has no purpose. It is clearly an "episode 2 of 3" film, and on its own is purely interstitial. Yes, it reveals some backstory. Yes, it sets the stage for a grand conflict. But this is not serial TV. This is film. this 90 minutes needs to stand on its own and be worthwhile. It is not. 

If you want plot, Andy and her gang of immortals continues to do good, even though Andy is now mortal. We find out why, we find an immortal who is not good, and we have personal conflict. The plot is a mess and even the action scenes are deflating. 

2 stars (out of 5)

Fountain of Youth

Billed as a National Treasure and Indiana Jones genre, it fits the bill. Jon Krasinski and Natalie Portman play a sibling team of treasure hunters who are going up against a secret society of protectors to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. Since it is not set in WWII, we can't get the Nazis-seeking-Ark exactly, but it is as close to derivative to that storyline as you can get in the modern era. Which is both the joy and the problem with this script. Familiar and fun, and derivative. Maybe this is all we get anymore???

3 stars (out of 5)

Family Pack

French version of Jumanji, but set in a medieval village instead of the wild. A "normal" family gets pulled into a game that is basically a real-life version of werewolf. Cute, just clever enough. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Harry Potter

All 7 (8) films

So clearly a binge, but once I started, I didn't stop. I suppose the early films were novel at the time and the books were such a part of the zeitgeist that anything on screen would have been amazing. Now, the first few are remarkably stilted in terms of dialogue and plot. Clearly they were following the recipe of the book and working with young actors. The final episodes (The Deathly Hallows) were a clear LOTR vibe and felt like a different series. Again, probably not noticeable over the decade of actual release, but within a weekend, obvi. That leaves my favorite of the series (this time) -- Order of the Phoenix. Most clearly captures the camraderie of the young crew, the mysticism of magic, coming of age. Maybe I'll do this again in another decade. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Madame Web

Back story first I guess. This is the development of how a group of "spider women" get their powers from a spider cult clan deep in the amazon jungle and how they overcome the wierdness of their situation to save the world from a bad guy. A new character for me (and most I would guess), so Marvel was right to make this a backstory movie. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Damsel

A young women is betrothed to a foreign prince. It is a political match, a necessary sacrifice for the good of her people during a time when famine is widespread. What she finds out later is that it really is intended as a sacrifice -- the foreign politics require "donation" of royal blood to a dragon as part of an ancient pact. What the dragon does not expect is that Millie Bobbie Brown (as Elodie) wants no part of sacrifice. Classic fantasy tale.

3 stars (out of 5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (serial)

A nice short series following modern day Percy as he discovers his demi-god self, makes some friends, and goes on a quest to find Zeus' "master bolt" and prevent all out war between the gods. A good mixture of modernization and fantasy, kid character development and questioning the status quo. Lightweight and straight forward, but also no real flaws. What I was hoping for with The Kid who would be King and a retelling of Arthur's knights. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Yu Yu Hakusho (serial)

A 5-episode series based on a Manga of the same name. Yusuke is the protagonist, a tough guy school student who shows signs of caring for the underdog. When he dies saving a kid from a runaway truck, he gets a second chance. The price, he becomes a spirit investigator. First job, recover some stolen artifacts from demons who have infiltrated the human world. Which leads to the bigger job of preventing a permanent rift in the barrier between the demon and human world. He makes friends along the way, and everyone discovers something about themselves and the importance of relationship and trust and friendship. Appropriate length and really fun imagining of demon forms and battle scenes. Really fun. 

5 stars (out of 5)

One Piece (serial)

Hopefully this is season 1. One Piece is a live action serial based on a manga series by the same name. Protagonist Monkey D Luffy is a pirate putting together a crew to find the Grand Line and search for a mythical treasure known as the One Piece. Find this treasure will be a big part of Luffy becoming king of the pirates. The series definitely plays like a manga with a target audience age of middle school. Characters are eccentric and caricatures, often with special abilities. Luffy himself has eaten a dragon fruit and has become stretchy. And the crew that he is putting together is a reluctant set of individualists who are all discovering the benefits of a team or family for the first time in their lives. Overall, a highly enjoyable series that walks that live action/animation line perfectly. 

5 stars (out of 5)

The Kid Who Would be King

Modern retelling of King Arthur + Disney = this movie.

2 stars (out of 5)

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

So I'm not a D&D fan, never played, completely naive about the culture, etc. I say this to provide context for my expectations for this movie... none. I had heard complaints from "the community", but those mean nothing to me, without a history. The movie is a comedic fantasy telling of a thief who lost his wife, takes on one last job to get a "wife-bringer-backer" talisman, gets caught, loses his daughter, and spends the rest of the movie winning her back. This most reminded me of The Princess Bride, without being quite so iconic. Or maybe Romancing the Stone? I don't know. I quite enjoyed it as a light hearted, occasional chuckle (who's not going to laugh at an obese dragon) fantasy romp. Definitely better than the Mortal Kombat movie, which I also had no connection to. 

3 stars (out of 5)

School Spirits (serial)

A high school girl is killed on her campus, but finds that her spirit sticks around. She meets other spirits who are also stuck to the school. Her obsession becomes finding out what actually happened to her (how she was killed). Helps that she can actually still converse with her living best friend. Scooby Doo meets Sixth Sense?

3 stars (out of 5)

The Imperfects (serial)

Rogue scientists have created artificial stem cells as a mechanism to treating certain incurable diseases. This series picks up a decade in, when the participants in the medical trial are finding that the stem cells are causing some side effects... like becoming a banshee, a succubus, or a chupacabra. So the three protagonists band together with one of the rogue scientists to find the other scientist to insist on a cure. A rogue government agency gets involved. As the story develops, each "victim" goes through a process of coming to terms with their side effect and moves toward a decision of whether they even want to be fixed or not. Final rating... kinda fun. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Warrior Nun (serial)

Season 2

Ava, as the Warrior Nun, is now fully part of the Order of the Cruciform Sword. The OCS is a secret black ops order of nuns who are charged with protecting the church against supernatural attacks. Having freed the angel Adriel at the end of last season, only to find that the Halo was his and he has designs on taking over religion on earth. The OCS (mostly Ava) spend the entire season trying to take down Adriel -- plan A leads to Plan B leads to Plan C leads to ... you get the picture. There is some new technology, some new characters, and some revelations about the bigger picture of power in the universe. But in spite of all that, this is basically a Warrior Nun v Angel season. And it doesn't lose focus. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Troll

An ancient mountain troll is awakened during an mining explosion in northern Norway. This turns out to be a king of trolls and is on his way to Oslo to his home, the palace. A paleobiologist is brought in, has to battle the military for the ear of the prime minister, to save all of Norway from this monster. As cheesy as that sounds, this is a pretty good 1-dimensional fairy tale. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Wednesday (serial)

Wednesday Addams is sent to Nevermore school (for outcasts) to continue her education and make friends. She is determined not to... and so does. There is a plot on her life, lots of scary stuff like monsters and demon pilgrims and all of it is perfect for her. I enjoyed the series, and the driest of dry humor which is Wednesday. But probably it could have been 5, or maybe 6 episodes instead of 8. 

4 stars (out of 5)

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Tatiana Maslany is Jennifer Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner who happens to get some of his blood in her in a car accident. She is excellent, both as Walters and as her hulked out self. Trying to keep her life as "normal" as possible, she heads up the superhuman law division at a big firm. Her cases are weird, and she gets to actually engage in self discovery and ease into her new life, even as she is thrown into the deep end. Light hearted fun.

4 stars (out of 5)

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

What I liked about the first Fantastic Beasts was Eddie Redmayne and his character Newt. This episode is more about plot and conspiracy and intrigue. So not my favorite. 

2 stars (out of 5)